


Sweet

by Starfruit



Category: VIXX
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Bittersweet, Cute, High School, M/M, One-Sided Attraction, One-Sided Relationship, Short & Sweet, Slice of Life
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-26
Updated: 2016-11-26
Packaged: 2018-09-02 08:04:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 864
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8659150
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Starfruit/pseuds/Starfruit
Summary: Ken gives Leo candy.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Influenced by two things, a random manga I just read and I wanted to write about candy and also this post this girl once wrote in which she conditioned her crush to like by giving him candy whenever she saw him. Un-beta'd, pretty randomly, spur of the moment written

I originally wasn’t a fan of sweets.

 

Jaehwan would bring me a candy almost every day for the first year of high school.

 

A little after lunch, I could always expect to see his bright smile and a wrapped candy on my desk or in my hand.

 

It wasn’t always the same brand, but always the same style. A packaged little hard confectionary in strawberry, melon, orange, pineapple, or grape flavor.

 

I don’t know why he does even now in our second year of high school, or if he gives candies to others as well, but those things don’t matter. Somewhere down the line I began to look forward to gift-bearing visits.

 

“Leo,” he once said as we sucked on our sweets. Classes were transitioning, so he only had a second to sit in front of my desk and spout whatever ridiculous thing was on his mind that day.

 

“That’s not my name,” I replied.

 

“It’s my nickname for you,” he said with a grin. “Because you’re like cat. Anyways, Leo, did you watch that show I told you about?”

 

Keeping up with him has always been difficult for me. I rolled my eyes and gave my head a slight shake.

 

“Whaaaat?!” he shouted in reply, half the room turning to look at us. My face flared from the sudden unwanted attention. “But it’s soooo good!”

 

“Why are you like this?” I half complained, half laughed, while covering my red face.

 

He laughed, asking “What do you mean?” over and over in different weird voices. He is so difficult to keep up with.

 

Once someone said that because I am big and quiet, maybe Jaehwan was conditioning me into being his friend.

 

“Think about it,” Hakyeon spoke to a group of his friends, of which he had many. “That Taekwoon kid is so scary. If he wants to bully us, he could. Jaehwan is just being smart and making sure it doesn’t happen to him!”

 

Maybe after overhearing this and giving it some thought, I should have started rejecting Jaehwan’s offerings, but I didn’t.

 

Day after day, I would listen to him go on about anime or his classwork or his friends or singing or his family. Anything and everything.

 

“The store only had grape and a weird flavor left,” Jaehwan said one day. “Do you want to try the weird one? I think it was meat or something like that.”

 

I had been looking out the window where I could get the perfect view of a couple walking down the street hand-in-hand. I didn’t reply to him.

 

He smiled. “I’ll bring it tomorrow.”  


The next day I found out that I hate meat-flavored candies.

 

During my first year, I had several girls confess to me simply because of my face. I don’t talk to many people and mostly keep to myself. Known of those girls knew me and I didn’t know them, so I rejected them plainly.

 

Still, as they went crying to their friends, I received the label of being a cold guy. Maybe I am since I never tried to dispel this rumor and lived with it quietly.

 

“I can’t believe you don’t have a girlfriend,” Jaehwan said one day, biting into the candy he had just placed in his mouth.

 

“You’ll break your teeth like that,” I said, sucking on my own sweet.

 

Jaehwan smiled widely, leaned in, and whispered, “I think I might get a girlfriend soon.”

 

I didn’t know back then, but now it’s clear why my heart sank so heavily.

 

Not too long after that, I passed by two girls as they gossiped about their classmates’ rejection of Jaehwan.

 

For weeks, he didn’t mention anything about it to me.

 

Then suddenly one afternoon he said, “I didn’t get a girlfriend like I thought. She said she actually kind of likes me, but doesn’t think we’d work out. That I’m not manly enough. What does that mean?” He had been holding onto a pink candy from a brand we’d never had before. Instead of unwrapping it and enjoying it as usual, he shoved it into his pocket then crossed his arms.

 

A couple days passed and he would show up to talk, but he wouldn’t bring candies.

 

I think it shocked him, when I brought them one groggy Thursday. He had seemed tired and perked up when eating the confectionary. I hadn’t noticed that there was a certain cheesy grin he had that went missing with the candy. Seeing it again made me smile. I think that was the moment when I knew.

 

I wonder if I’m normal. Or if Jaehwan is normal. I wonder if I should get a girlfriend even though I don’t particularly want one.

 

Even now, I want to live simply. I want to continue to easily pass the time with my favorite shows, my schooling, my family, my hobbies, and with Jaehwan and the candy.

 

As Jaehwan sits across from me, laughing loudly about something that probably only deserved a small chuckle, I think there’s something nice about sucking all the sugar out from something like this strawberry candy.

 

Originally, I didn’t really like sweets, but maybe I’ve been conditioned into doing so.


End file.
